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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Human beings have been playing games for a long time, but in the last few decades these games have become more and more elaborate with the development of high performance personal computers and gaming consoles. When I was growing up the Gameboy represented the ultimate portable gaming machine, but when compared to the latest releases by Nintendo and Sony the original Gameboy seems like a giant ancient artifact. Over the last few years many people have started to play games on their smart phone or portable music device since the games can be purchased and downloaded directly through the device instead of through a old-fashion brick-and-mortar toy store. These games are usually more casual in nature (most devices lack joysticks and buttons, instead using tilt sensors and touch screens), but they still are a fun way to pass the time while riding the bus or waiting for friends.

One area that I have not seen a lot of development in is that of real-world social gaming. Yes you can play Scrabble with friends on your iPhone or Texas Hold’em with friends on your Android, but what about playing games with friends that are in the same room as you? Instead of just being PERSONAL devices, our portable electronics should also have the ability to help us entertain GROUPS of people. I have many friends that prefer playing old-fashioned board games or card games primarily because these games are much more sociable and can be played in a large group.

Being a programmer I have taken note of this and decided that I want to help change this trend. It is my goal to design games of a gregarious nature that promote interacting with others in your proximity instead of just your online friends. I already have a few ideas and hope to have an initial version released in the next month or two. At first these games will target Windows Phone 7 for a variety of reasons that will be outlined in a future post, but if they succeed then I plan on expanding to other mobile platforms as well.

I also plan on blogging throughout the planning, development, and release cycle, so if this is of interest to you then you can follow along using the email or RSS subscription links located on the side bar. I also registered a Twitter account ( @PhraseMeme ) that you can follow for all the latest updates or use to send feedback. If that is not enough, you can also follow my personal and technical blogs to round out your online stalker profile :-P